Mission NL1 Inertia and Newton's First Law
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Inertia refers to ...
Inertia is the property of an object which describes its natural tendency to keep on doing whatever it is doing.
Many beginning students of Physics have the conception of inertia as some sort of force. To them, inertia is the force that acts upon a moving object to keep it moving and prevent it from slowing down. But don't be fooled! Inertia is simply the tendency of an object to keep on doing whatever it is doing. It is the natural tendency of an object to stubbornly maintain its state of motion. Inertia is not a push or pull on an object. It is the intrinsic property of an object. A push or pull on an object is known as a force. And a force is not needed for an object to maintain its state of motion. In fact a push or pull upon an object (when unbalanced) would alter an object's state of motion and cause it to change its velocity.
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